Respectfully submitted by Kaywyn J. Beswick, R.N./American Red Cross Morrison Community Blood Program Leader.
It was a cold Thursday, with temperatures in the teens, on January 9, when the first blood drive of 2025 was held at St. Mary Catholic Church, 13320 Garden Plain Road, Morrison, IL. Thank you to the church for allowing the ARC to use their church hall regularly. The canteen sponsor for the January blood drives has been the Ebenezer Reformed Church Women. They came through wonderfully, fixing a delicious lunch with a plethora of fantastic homemade cookies. The ladies who purchased groceries, baked goodies, and prepared yummy sandwiches were Mary Vos, Jean Tichler, Barb Domdey, Darlene Hook, and Joyce Ottens; thank you so very much, ladies. Special appreciation goes to Deb Adolph for organizing the great team from afar! Whole blood donors after donating are Amy Oudekerk and Bill Kuehl.
I want to express gratitude for my two Certified ARC volunteers who manage the registration table and make donor appointments for the next blood drive. They are Pat Pendgraft and Irma Russell; they sure help the drives run smoothly. I am very grateful for my two post-escort volunteers, Pam Jones and Rick Barr. I greatly appreciate you both.
There were 53 wonderful people who came through our doors, to give of their time and blood products to help save lives. Our whole blood donors were Cathie Downs, Barb Imel, Stephanie Vavra, Toni Decker, Kirk Pfeiffer, Jody Pyles, Penny Milnes, Philip Olt, Craig Brady, Joan Vander Bleek, Lisa Nice, Bill Kuehl, DuWayne Ottens, Chris Hawkins, Lyle Bush, Renee Vanderlaan, Pamela Jones, Pamela Shank, Dave Temple, Sheila Sonberg, Amy Oudekerk, David Stickel, Mary Pat Stewart, Duane Imel, Connie Tegeler, Gerald Schultz, Cal Venema, Bryan Wollesen, Carolyn Aiken, Sarah Bull, Niki Strohmayer, Brad Bielema, Tim West, Susan Gomez, Joe R. Bielema, Lisa Boles, Kaywyn Beswick, Kelsie Lowery, and five people (one woman and four men) who did not want their names published. We had ten terrific donors who gave Double Red Cells (equivalent to two units). They were Evan Davis, Vaughn Maxfield, Carole Newcomer, Tom Rosenbalm, Dennis Zickert, Joe Screnock, Jill Vegter, Jack Jones, and two men who did not want their names published. Pictured left to right Maxfield, Newcomer, and Davis.
There were only three deferrals, which is only 5.6%, and that is great compared to the ARC expected 7%. I usually have many more deferrals at the January blood drives; with the cold weather, our capillaries tend to be more constricted, which makes a lower hemoglobin/iron number. Donors who have been deferred in the winter months, should either wash their hands with warm water when they enter the drive, or use the heating pad provided to warm their fingers. That dilates their capillaries for a better resulting number. Speaking of Hemaglobin/Iron, the ARC has a new device that measures your Hemaglobin level WITHOUT any fingerstick poke with a needle! Yay, yay, yay! It is a small circular monitor that encircles your thumb, reading the Hemaglobin level–similar to how a SaO2 finger monitor reads your oxygen level. This is definitely state-of-the-art progress!
Out of the 53 donors, 41 of them used the online Rapid Pass to answer history questions before donating, which can save 10-15 minutes of registration time. That is an awesome 79% Rapid Pass participation rate, which is fantastic! Only nine people did not show up for their appointment, but there have been quite a few different bad bugs going around (Norovirus, Strept, COVID, etc.)
Because of the Knights Of Columbus Fish Fry Dinners in March, our next blood drive on Thursday, March 20, will be located at Morrison United Methodist Church, 200 W. Lincolnway, with the Bethesda Lutheran Church sponsoring the canteen.
Please stay safe and warm. There are only 66 days until Spring!